My Daye-set has shipped and will probably be here around christmas (+/- a day or two). As I live in northern Sweden, and it’s winter, the relative humidity isn’t that high in my house. What’s the recommended relative humidity (if there is one)? I’m planning on buying an electrical air-moisturizer (a Bionaire BU 1300 to be specific). Will that do, or does it take more than that?
The humidity is always a problem. Same for me in Germany. We have about 25% in winter in heated rooms. But a real problem is not a low humidity but a high one above 75%. There a reed will become much softer and will be tuned down.
A reed adjustment like shifting the bridle or closing/opening the lips is always necessary throughout the year. If you’ll get a set from Ireland where the reed has been tuned to higher humidity you will probably have to close the lips or shift the bridle downwards to the staple.
A humidifyer is helpful. For perfect conditions you have to stay in the range in which the maker has tuned the reed. In Germany between 40 an 50% is usually perfect.
Why don’t you learn to adjust your reeds to the conditions you’re playing at, rather than buying some device to give you an illusion of mastering your instrument. Well, I even doubt that. But for sure your dream of stable conditions will burst like a bubble once there’s no whatever fancy electric moistureizing wizzard around. And of course, there are other reasons not to buy another thing. Why is evrything alway about ‘buying’ and ‘having’? Try ‘doing’ something! 
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Cheers,
Philipp
Buying or having things are ways of doing something (they’re both verbs, after all)!
If you can keep humidity above 40% RH then things will be happier - wood as well as reeds.
If not, then at least relatively constant, and above 20%. You may need special reeds for anything below 40% and even that seems to be too dry for many reeds. If there are “ideal” conditions I’d say about 60% to 70% RH, but that is probably impractical for your climate. I think that big humidity swings are risky for the reed’s survival.
Bill
I remember seeing Liam O’Flynn last time he was in Chicago. Right next to his seat he kept a small humidifier running throughout the concert. If Mr. O’Flynn can’t or doesn’t want to adjust his reeds to “the conditions” he’s playing in, I don’t feel too bad about not being able to do so myself.
David can make reeds suited for varying humidity. For instance, if you live in a dry region be sure and tell him that, and he can tailor the reed to your conditions. A number of us living in the dry southwestern US have had excellent results with his dry climate reeds. If you have varying humidity you might ask for two reeds, to suit the conditions - more and less humid.